Stearns County seeks changes in Melrose mobile home park

Nov. 17, 2012

Melrose Community Development Director Gary Walz walks past mobile homes Oct. 11 at Rose Park in Melrose. County officials have been working to improve conditions in the park. / Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com

Related Links

MELROSE — Amid a row of aging mobile homes with sagging roofs and faded siding, a man pushes a lawn mower over a tiny patch of dusty grass.

Down the street, a home stands empty, a window broken, the door wide open.

Welcome to Rose Park, a manufactured home community on the west side of Melrose whose dilapidated state has raised questions about the responsibility of maintaining safe living conditions for some of the city’s poorest residents.

City officials say they want to see the quality of life improve for the roughly 130 people who live in the park, where many of the homes are four decades old and don’t meet current codes.

Stearns County took legal action against the park’s owner in October, asking the court to order him to remove five vacant homes and build a storm shelter for the park’s residents, or allow the county to do it for him. The county has refused to issue the park a license since 2009 due to the lack of a suitable storm shelter.

Twin Cities attorney John Bonner III, who owns the park through his company, Melrose Community LLC, has agreed to remove the empty homes and build a storm shelter by June 30. City officials say Bonner has made some effort in recent weeks to clean up debris in the park and secure vacant homes so they don’t attract troublemakers. He’s also installed some rain gardens to correct a flooding problem in the park’s streets after rainstorms.

“Overall, I have to admit it’s improved,” said Gary Walz, Melrose community development director. “Things are slowly changing. Are we holding our breath? No, because there’s still more work to be done.”

Rose Park is not the only mobile home community struggling with poor home conditions, a lack of amenities and infrastructure problems.

“They are problems that we hear about often,” said Dave Anderson, executive director of All Parks Alliance for Change, a St. Paul-based group that advocates for residents of mobile home parks.

There are more than 900 licensed parks scattered in almost all 87 counties in Minnesota, according to the alliance. Almost 180,000 people live in those parks, and about 80 percent have low or very low incomes.

(Page 2 of 6)

Mobile home parks are the leading source of independent housing for Latino migrant workers in southern Minnesota, with Latinos making up more than 90 percent of the residents in some parks.

That’s also true at Rose Park, where the majority of residents are Latinos. The city has experienced a surge in Latino population in the past two decades, with many employed at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant or on area farms.

City officials say there’s a need for lower-cost housing, but it should still meet a basic level of quality.

“There is a shortage of affordable housing,” City Administrator Michael Brethorst said. “I think that’s prevalent throughout the region, and not just Melrose ... That’s why the county and the city (are) working together to ensure that Rose Park does meet the standard for affordable living, affordable housing in the city.”

While home ownership among Latinos has steadily increased in Melrose, securing a home mortgage can be difficult for immigrants.

“This is an area of housing that our community needs,” Walz said. “These folks generally don’t have credit or rental histories that enable them to go into a traditional (home mortgage).”

History of problems

Rose Park dates back to the 1960s, when many of the homes were made. They predate 1976 federal codes regulating the construction of manufactured homes.

The park has room for about 72 homes. About 47 units are occupied, Walz said.

The park has changed owners several times over the years. Stearns County unsuccessfully tried to get previous owner Judy Adams to make improvements to the park, including removing some of the worst homes with broken windows and collapsed ceilings.

Last year, the county removed 12 units it declared public health nuisances. This year, Stearns County’s environmental services department declared eight more homes to be public health nuisances. The owner has removed three of the eight.

In the county’s petition filed Oct. 15 against Bonner and his firm, Melrose Community LLC, which owns the park, Stearns County claimed that its residents “continue to live with the health and safety risks due to the unclean and unhealthy condition of the vacant, abandoned, dilapidated, and uninhabitable homes within the park.”

(Page 3 of 6)

The county sought authority to remove the uninhabitable homes, build the storm shelter and assess the costs on Bonner’s property tax bill.

The city has allowed Rose Park to designate the basement of the park manager’s home as a temporary storm shelter, but it isn’t up to code, Walz said, and would “barely adequately” meet the park’s needs in a crisis.

“It’s by far not the ideal situation,” he said.

Several residents have tried to make improvements to their homes, including new windows or siding, but not always with proper city permits. In some cases, residents have used whatever items they can salvage to make repairs and improvements, such as using wooden palettes to construct a fence.

“They’ve tried to make the best use of the materials they can find,” Walz said.

Seeking improvements

Melrose Community LLC took over the park in 2009. Bonner said he worked out a deal to acquire the park from Adams, the previous owner, just days before a contract for deed expired.

Bonner said he viewed the deal as “trying to help somebody out.” Instead, he ended up in a legal tangle with Adams and has been working to clear the property titles.

“I got left with a situation that was a lot worse than I ever imagined,” he said.

Bonner said he isn’t able to visit the park often, but a manager lives on site. He pointed to improvements he has made at the park, including removing several vacant homes, planting rain gardens, trimming trees, repairing water pipes and fixing the streets.

Bonner said he had plans drawn up for a storm shelter, but was encouraged by Stearns County to apply for a grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said that slowed the process because of added requirements.

Bonner said he believes some of the homes declared a public health nuisance by the county are salvageable.

“If these homes can be repaired and used and they’re structurally sound, they should stay,” he said. “If they’re in bad shape and they can’t be rehabbed, they should go.”

Bonner said he doesn’t tolerate garbage or debris and has given directions to his manager to remove anything left behind.

(Page 4 of 6)

“If it had been there for more than a day, I’m not happy,” he said. “That’s not how the park is supposed to be maintained.”

Citing ordinances, the city refuses to allow Bonner to bring any new mobile homes into the park until delinquent property taxes are paid. The taxes owed on three parcels that comprise the park total $107,468, according to the Stearns County auditor-treasurer’s office.

Bonner said he’s been waiting until the title issues are resolved to pay the taxes.

City officials and Bonner dispute whether the park’s tenants have signed leases. While Bonner said he has leases with “a very substantial number of residents out there,” city officials say that’s not clear.

“The reason that we think leases would be a giant step forward is because once there’s a signed lease agreement in place, then there can be no ‘Well, I didn’t know what the rules were,’ ” Melrose Police Chief John Jensen said.

Questions also linger about who actually owns the homes. The current tenants consider themselves the owners, Jensen said. But in some cases, the mobile home may have been sold several times. The original owner still retains the title even though he or she doesn’t live there anymore, Jensen said.

“Trying to find that person would be next to impossible,” he said.

The city maintains a watchful eye on Rose Park. Jensen often walks its streets and knows many of the residents by name.

The number of police calls from the park isn’t any different than any other place in the community, Jensen said. The calls that do come in are usually minor problems, such as loud music or driving complaints.

“Over the course of time, there have been families that have moved in that gobbled up considerable resources,” Jensen said. “However, those folks are normally short-term. And once they’ve been arrested and warrants catch up to them, they move someplace else to try to move away from their problems.”

Racial disparity?

In 2007, All Parks Alliance for Change published a report examining racial disparities in several Minnesota mobile home parks, including in Melrose. Researchers compared the racial makeup and conditions at two parks in the city, Rose Park and Melrose Mobile Home Park.

(Page 5 of 6)

The results of the study found a statewide pattern of different conditions at mobile home communities. Latino-dominated parks tended to have more deterioration, fewer amenities and higher rent, Anderson said.

Bonner said he believes he’s charging market rent and hasn’t increased it since he bought the park.

In comparison, residents at Melrose Mobile Home Park pay $175 a month. The park is tidy and lined with well-kept homes. It’s been owned by the same family since 1975.

The owner, Randy Dufner, lives within sight of the park and visits

frequently. He said the most important thing is “staying ahead of problems.” That includes talking to people who leave trash bags on their front steps, don’t cut their grass or let their dogs run loose, he said.

“If you see a little thing, you’ve got to nip it quick before it becomes big,” Dufner said.

Dufner said he rents to six families with at least one Latino member, and might have more if his park had more turnover. He said he does enforce rules limiting each home to just one family, which might dissuade some large, multi-generational families from moving in.

Hoping for change

Some hold out hope that this long-struggling community will see better days.

Melrose officials have a wish list for Rose Park: repairing and maintaining its streets, cleaning up junk piles, regular visits from the park’s owner and establishing a children’s play area.

While Walz is hopeful that conditions at Rose Park might be improving, he notes that the housing is still substandard. He would like to see the older homes eventually swapped out for newer, more-efficient modern models.

Walz underscored that the residents of Rose Park are “just normal people.” He recalls driving through and seeing teenage boys and girls outside practicing dances for an upcoming quinceañera, a traditional Mexican celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday.

(Page 6 of 6)

The park’s owner and its tenants share responsibility in making Rose Park a better place to live, Walz said.

“There is work to be done,” he said. “There’s got to be continuously work being done keeping this place clean.”

John Houghton, a contractor from Melrose, has worked on eight to 10 mobile homes in Rose Park, replacing windows, doors, flooring and doing minor plumbing and electrical work.

“They do want to fix up their place. They do want to stay warm,” Houghton said. “I think they’d like to see things improved.”

Language has been a bit of a barrier, but Houghton has found residents who either speak English themselves or whose children do to help communicate.

Yudi and Saul Hernandez, who have lived in the park for three years, remodeled their own home, including putting in new windows. They say conditions at the park have improved, but they’d like to see more improvements, including a playground for 3-year-old Jonathan.

“I just want to clean everything and help each other keep it clean,” Yudi Hernandez said.

Anderson, with All Parks Alliance for Change, said there are other communities he’s worked with that have seen improvement, but it’s a long road. In some cases, residents have formed an association and some have even taken park owners to court to force changes.

“I’ve certainly seen communities that were very distressed turn themselves around, but normally it is a step-by-step process,” Anderson said. “It’s certainly not overnight. I haven’t seen any magic wands.”